Letters to the Editor

“Taking Hell's Measurements”: Popular Science and Popular Mechanics Magazines and the Atomic Bomb from Hiroshima to Bikini

“…“Man has more than doubled his life span since Roman times. Atomic medicine now promises to stretch it farther.” One sentence captured particularly well the tenor of the piece: “Therapy will follow as the atomic bomb followed knowledge and necessity” (Dreher 91). Where there were to be illustrations, such as the badges worn by individuals at the Manhattan Project, were only empty boxes marked “CENSORED” which directed the reader to an editorial by the magazine's editor, Perry Githens, explaining that the military had forbade Popular Science from using these images.…”